BAM! and dancing…
Belonging
Affirmation
Meaning
The 3 most important tools a leader, or anyone else for that matter, can use to influence others.
My life partner and I recently attended a LifeChange final competition.
LifeChange is a local organization that works with 5th graders in mostly inner city schools building their characters, growing self- and other-respect by teaching them ball room dancing – salsa, meringue, fox trot et al.
That’s right, dancing.
And 5th graders.
Often the girls are budding women a half foot taller than their boy partners whose clothes don’t ever look like they quite fit and who also seem to find it hard or even repulsive to put their hands on a girl’s waist.
Thank you Jesus for innocence.
The auditorium was packed, and rowdy. There were parents, families, friends and teachers holding up signs for their schools and their precious kids.
Yelling encouragement, clapping, whistling.
They thought their kids could see them, hear them.
Maybe they could.
It didn’t matter.
The performers either had grins and smiles of unembarrased joy on their faces or intense concentration. They were literally on stage and loving it.
LifeChange gives kids a sense of Belonging. They are doing something together, a shared experience all guided by a volunteer who believes they can learn and grow and get something they currently don’t have. What a gift.
LifeChange gives kids an opportunity for Affirmation. Sitting in the audience, whistling and clapping for kids I have never seen and don’t know. Who was affirming whom?
LifeChange gives kids Meaning. Well duh. Read the two paragraphs above. You know it’s meaningful to the kids AND their parents, families and friends. Just look at their faces.
LifeChange is true to their name. And it’s pretty simple tools they use. BAM!
Belonging
Affirmation
Meaning
It will work in your organization, in your family, in your relationships.
He who loves purity and the pure in heart and who is gracious in speech – because of the grace of his lips will he have the king for his friend.
Proverbs 22:11
